A new genetic model for obesity?A gene involved in fat (lipid) metabolism, and consequently relevant for studies in obesity and diabetes, has been described in Drosophila melanogaster (fruit fly) by a team of researchers in the September issue of Mechanisms of Development. Luis Teixeira and Nathalie F. Vanzo from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany, and their collaborators, describe how this gene,... View News Article (2003-09-25)

Animal magnetism provides a sense of directionThey may not be on most people's list of most attractive species, but bats definitely have animal magnetism. Researchers from the Universities of Leeds and Princeton have discovered that bats use a magnetic substance in their body called magnetite as an 'internal compass' to help them navigate. View News Article (2008-02-27)

When every photon countsThe eyes of nocturnal mammals have very large numbers of highly-sensitive rod photoreceptors (the cell type responsible for night vision). They have to perceive light which is less than a millionth of the intensity of daylight. View News Article (2009-04-17)

Our brains are more like birds' than we thoughtFor more than a century, neuroscientists believed that the brains of humans and other mammals differed from the brains of other animals, such as birds (and so were presumably better). This belief was based, in part, upon the readily evident physical structure of the neocortex, the region of the brain responsible for complex cognitive behaviors. View News Article (2010-07-06)